1. Material Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA
2. Institute of Semiconductor Physics, 630090, Novosibirsk, Russia
3. Institut für experimentelle und angewandte Physik, Universität Regensburg, D-93040 Regensburg, Germany
4. Theoretische Physik III, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, D-44801 Bochum, Germany
5. IMEC, Kapeldreef 75, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium

Correspondence to: Valerii M. Vinokur¹ Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to V.M.V. (Email: vinokour@anl.gov).

Abstract

Synchronized oscillators are ubiquitous in nature¹, and synchronization plays a key part in various classical and quantum phenomena. Several experiments^{2, 3, 4} have shown that in thin superconducting films, disorder enforces the droplet-like electronic texture—superconducting islands immersed into a normal matrix—and that tuning disorder drives the system from superconducting to insulating behaviour. In the vicinity of the transition, a distinct state⁴ forms: a Cooper-pair insulator, with thermally activated conductivity. It results from synchronization of the phase of the superconducting order parameter at the islands across the whole system⁵. Here we show that at a certain finite temperature, a Cooper-pair insulator undergoes a transition to a superinsulating state with infinite resistance. We present experimental evidence of this transition in titanium nitride films and show that the superinsulating state is dual to the superconducting state: it is destroyed by a sufficiently strong critical magnetic field, and breaks down at some critical voltage that is analogous to the critical current in superconductors.

1. Material Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA
2. Institute of Semiconductor Physics, 630090, Novosibirsk, Russia
3. Institut für experimentelle und angewandte Physik, Universität Regensburg, D-93040 Regensburg, Germany
4. Theoretische Physik III, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, D-44801 Bochum, Germany
5. IMEC, Kapeldreef 75, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium

Correspondence to: Valerii M. Vinokur¹ Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to V.M.V. (Email: vinokour@anl.gov).

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